


When I Met You

by hufflevibes



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Pretending 2x06 didn’t happen lol, Soft!Rio, i guess?, inspired by this movie called Love Story, kinda sad, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-11 05:12:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18423567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hufflevibes/pseuds/hufflevibes
Summary: God she was so tired. But what could she do ya know?





	1. Beth

**Author's Note:**

> Giant thank you to my friend Kelly (@luciforbes on twitter) for proofreading and helping me add stuff to this! ♡

It shouldn’t be this hard to do the right thing. To do what’s _best_ for herself.

 

Three mortgages, a child bride along with three other women, and faking cancer? It should’ve sent her over the edge already but, for Elizabeth Marks..no, **_Beth Boland_ **, her children always came first. Cheating and lying or not, she couldn’t hurt them. She couldn’t cut the red thread of fate just yet.

 

So in the end, she deals with it and forgives him again. And _again_ . _And again_. Because at the end of the day, Dean’s a good father.

 

Right?

 

She softly laughs to herself, though there is no reason for her too. She’s just tired. She’s always tired.

Then _he_ comes around- Rio. And as much as he exhausts her, he makes her feel so _alive._

 

The way his name rolls off her tongue excites her. He excites her. God, is she going insane?

 

“ _I’m just so tired_.” she says, barely choking back a sob. She doesn’t know why she tells him. He wouldn’t care and she doesn’t really want him to.

 

Or does she?

 

_Oh god._

                         ___________

 

Rio calls her a Boss Bitch, gives her the keys to the ‘kingdom’. God, he was flirty too. She didn’t hate it.

 

Maybe she wasn’t going crazy after all. Hell, they’ve fucked in a bathroom for christ sakes. She refused to admit her growing feelings for him, but she couldn’t ignore how much of an impact he’s had on her. Rio made her feel good, made her confident again, and made her forget about all the problems already there and consequences to shortly come.

 

She realizes that her husband had never treated her right in all of their years of being together. Not only that, she couldn’t depend on him right now. Or _ever again_ , in all honesty. She’d done more for them than he and his excuses ever had. At the end of the day, excuses get you nowhere.

 

She scoffs to herself and whispers, “I should really follow my own advice sometimes.”

 

She takes a sip of bourbon.

                         ___________

 

She’s been on an insane “power trip”, as Annie likes to call it, lately. And she couldn’t lie, she liked being in charge. But when Rio gets upset at her in her own backyard, pointing a _gun_ to her again, she wondered if it was all worth it.

 

“ _You need me,_ ” She says to him. Annie was right. She’s going overboard. But acting this way would push him away. They could forget that night ever happened. Forget the way their eyes met in the mirror or the silence that screamed with more tension than Beth had ever known.

 

Couldn’t they?

 

_God, she needed a drink._

                         ___________

 

Jane goes missing. Jane gets _taken_. She is furious. Furious with Dean, for being such an inept father. Furious at herself for letting herself think she could keep one foot in his world, the other out of it.

 

She’s crying, her ears ringing, head pounding. She doesn’t know what else to do but ask Rio.  She shouldn't. The pull she feels towards him is what put her here in the first place.

 

“ _If you mess up, you die!_ ” He reprimands her; he doesn’t know what they’ve done yet. They hadn’t come for her, like he had feared as soon as he found out what she’d done.

 

“ _They took my kid!”_ She yells at him. She was crying again. The tears blur her vision and his face melts into the wall behind them and she just wants to go to sleep or maybe just get shitfaced wasted. Anything for all of this pain to go away.

 

It’s what she feared most. The problems and the consequences caught up to her. She didn’t know what else to do.

 

Her ears start to ring again and her head begins to pound.

 

_She’s broken down again._

 

Warmth seeps into her bones as Rio wraps his arms around her. Before she could even react, the most comforting words fall from his lips.

 

_I’ll fix it. Don’t worry._

And for a moment, she doesn’t.

                         ___________

 

Jane was home safe.

 

Days after the return of her youngest, she didn’t dare look or search for Rio. She didn’t even know what to say to him after all that, feeling embarrassed about the whole thing. She felt a presence behind her and turned around to see _him_. He looks her up and down, but it doesn’t feel as heated as usual.

 

“You’ve had a rotten egg in your own home this whole time, Elizabeth.” He reaches for a photo of Dean, Danny, and Buddy, running his finger along her husband’s face.

 

She laughs softly. “You know,” she states. She refuses to cry in front of him again but her eyes get glossy. He doesn’t answer.

“I don’t know how I managed to think that keeping a husband, who’s only managed to hurt me, around was what was best.” She laughs softly, tears threatening to fall but instead, she pushes her back against the oven, sliding to the floor. She hugs her knees, turning her head to rest her cheek on one of them and look up at Rio.

 

He lowers himself so that they sit, knees to knees. He reaches forwards and strokes his thumb over the knuckles resting on her knee. She doesn’t hate it.

 

Tears stream down her face now, and she has to inhale slowly before she can continue.

“He cheated on me. Four women. Probably a hundred different times. A girl he hired right out of high school, and three others while I was pregnant. He blames me. ‘I was lonely’ he says. As if I wasn’t lonely too. Not only that but he leaves me with three unpaid mortgages, lies about having _cancer_ , and can’t even keep an eye on his own goddamn daughter.”

 

She presses her face into her other hand and a sob breaks through. Rio squeezes her hand lightly, and she squeezes it back as she lets herself ugly cry for a while. Finally, she takes a breath and looks up at him. He is looking at her, something she’s not used to written on his face. She realizes it’s concern. She appreciates it, she really does, so she tries her best to reassure him.  

 

“It doesn't hurt, really it doesn't. It's like… falling off a cliff in slow motion, you know?” She starts and laughs as she wipes the tears from her eyes. Rio leans forward and wipes underneath each of her eyes with his free thumb and she laughs again. She couldn't believe the situation she’s in.  

 

Continuing with a whisper, “After twenty years, I wish I’d just hit the ground already, you know?”

 

“Yeah” he says.

 

She looks at him with teary eyes. “Bullshit…you’ve never fallen off a cliff in your entire life! You’re too young. You can’t start falling until you’re at least twenty six.” She giggles at him, but she truly does appreciate his attempts to comfort her.

 

“Of course I have darlin’,” he moves some of her hair from her face and brings it behind her ear. She looks at him, at his eyes and his lips and his brown sugar skin and can’t believe whos she’s sitting with.

 

“When I met you..” he says, his voice softer and less sure than she’d ever heard it.

 

Sitting there, looking at the man with the gold gun and the throat tattoo and the world so different from hers, she realizes that she didn’t love Dean, and she probably never did.

 

She wants Rio more than she had ever wanted Dean.

 

She cupped his cheek in her hand and put their foreheads together. He moves his free hand up to grip the side of her neck and moves his chin forward just slightly, closing his eyes.

 

She leans forward and closes the gap.

 

The kiss was everything she’d wished she felt before.

 

_Loved._

 

He makes _her feel loved_.

 

_She loves Rio._

 

The kiss, full of love and lust, soon escalates. Into something heated, and neither of them plan on stopping anytime soon.

 

Suddenly, she’s not so tired anymore.

 

When she met Rio, she learned what it’s like to feel loved.


	2. Rio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why was he so afraid of her falling too hard? Why was he so afraid of falling so hard?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished this after procrastinating for days!!!!!!!!

“ _ What are you doin’ Elizabeth? _ ”

 

“ _ I don’t know. I just want this to be over.. _ ” He saw her cry. 

 

“ _ Yeah? _ ” 

 

If there was anything he didn’t want to see again, it was her crying, especially if he was part the reason for it. 

“ _ Okay. Let’s end it. For real. _ ” He walked closer to her, attempting to take back his gun without harming her. 

 

“ _ It’s alright. It’s okay. _ ” 

 

He moved some of her hair from her tearstained face to behind her ear. 

 

_ He had to keep her from falling too hard on the ground. _

 

Gently caressing her chin, he thinks to back when they first met. This cookie cutter, basic housewife had him smitten after she had called him an idiot. 

 

“ _ You did your best.. _ ” He said, voice mysteriously yet genuinely soft, before aiming his gun at ‘Car Man’ and shooting him in the chest. He had a hunch as to why she and her little friends were working with him, and all the signs led to her husband. 

 

Hopefully she’ll realize that he was untrustworthy, that he wasn’t worthy of her, that ‘car-man’ was her rotten egg. He hoped that she realized that her own husband was the reason why she may soon fall to her demise. Or maybe, she already knows.

 

_ But, for now they were even. Weren’t they? _

 

_____________

 

He feels as though he’s gone insane. Watching her put up a new stop sign? He doesn’t know why he’s here, watching her. But, he knows that he’s in too deep with her. 

 

She had compared him to a newborn baby. He wanted to laugh but didn’t. 

 

“ _ Are you going to kill me? _ ” He heard almost relief in her voice. Maybe it was just his imagination. It was almost instinct that he kept brushing the hair from her face when she cried to him. He hated it when she cried. 

 

“ _ I’m gonna teach you..”  _

 

He needed to stop her from falling too hard on the ground. Whatever it may take. 

 

_ This game may be medieval, but he’d do anything for her.  _

 

_____________

 

“ _ Can I get a bourbon..on the rocks? _ ”

 

How couldn’t he know she likes bourbon? Especially after when she had called him over with her pearl necklace. He looked at her like she was some goddess. Like she’s the most interesting person in the world. 

 

_ He was falling in love, wasn’t he? _

 

_____________

 

So, they’ve fucked in the bathroom. And, right outside the bathroom is ‘car-man’. 

Don’t get him wrong, he doesn’t regret it. But, he worries if she does. 

 

They don’t mention it. They don’t talk  _ at all _ honestly and it’s starting to eat at him. 

 

Does he  _ miss _ her? 

 

Does he hate the fact that all he can think about lately was  _ her _ ? 

 

“ _ Oh come on ma, it’s too good _ .” He tells her, forgetting her ‘husband’ was right there. 

 

_ I think his answer is obvious at this point. _

 

_____________

 

“ _ If you mess up, you die! _ ” He reprimands her.

 

He knew the stunt she pulled at the location where she had dropped the car off. They hadn’t come for her, like he had feared, and thankfully she wasn’t hurt as he had worried. 

 

“ _ They took my kid!”  _ She yells at him. She was crying again. 

 

Something he told himself that he never wanted to see again. 

 

He embraced her, holding her head close to his chest. 

 

“ _ I’ll fix it. Don’t worry _ ” He whispered. He knew she had heard him though. 

 

_ He was falling hard. He was falling with her and for her.  _

 

_____________

 

He goes to check on her, and he doesn’t question himself at this point anymore. He just needed to see her again. 

 

What was wrong with him. 

 

Almost like instinct, she turns around and faces him. He looks at her up and down, no heat involved at all, just curiosity and slight worry. 

 

He says something first. 

 

“You’ve had a rotten egg in your own home this whole time, Elizabeth.” 

 

He reaches for a photo of ‘car-man’, one of her kids, and dog, running his finger along her husband’s face. 

 

He hated that man. Hated the fact that he was the one holding her back from so much and possibly the reason why she was doing all of this in the first place. 

 

“You know,” she states.

 

Her eyes get glossy. She was on the verge of crying, and all he could do was stand there and listen. 

 

“I don’t know how I managed to think that keeping a husband, who’s only managed to hurt me, around was what was best.” She laughs softly, tears threatening to fall but instead, he sees her push her back against the oven, sliding to the floor. She hugs her knees, turning her head to rest her cheek on one of them and look up at him.

 

He lowers himself so that they sit, knees to knees.

 

He reaches forwards and strokes his thumb over the knuckles resting on her knee. 

 

He witnesses the tears finally streaming down her face, noticing her inhale slowly before she can continue. He notices every little thing she does, whether she knows it or not, and whether he realized this himself or not. 

 

“He cheated on me. Four women. Probably a hundred different times. A girl he hired right out of high school, and three others while I was pregnant. He blames me. ‘I was lonely’ he says. As if I wasn’t lonely too. Not only that but he leaves me with three unpaid mortgages, lies about having  _ cancer _ , and can’t even keep an eye on his own goddamn daughter.”

 

She presses her face into her other hand and a sob breaks through. 

 

His blood boils hearing this, and begins to hate himself for being right. He squeezes her hand lightly, and she squeezes it back allowing herself to finally let it all out. 

 

Once she stops, she looks up at him. He is looking at her, concern written all over his face. He knew she wasn’t fully ok, and that her reassuring him was just to avoid sympathy. 

 

“It doesn't hurt, really it doesn't. It's like… falling off a cliff in slow motion, you know?” She starts and laughs as she wipes the tears from her eyes. 

 

Her laugh was something beautiful in his ears. It would be engraved in his mind for god knows how long. 

 

He leans forward and wipes underneath each of Beth’s eyes with his free thumb and she laughs again. 

 

_ God,  _ her laugh. It sounded like angels falling from heaven, despite how sad it was intended to be. 

 

Continuing with a whisper, “After twenty years, I wish I’d just hit the ground already, you know?” 

 

“Yeah” he says. 

 

He knows the feeling all too well. 

 

Teary eyes looked up at him. “Bullshit…you’ve never fallen off a cliff in your entire life! You’re too young. You can’t start falling until you’re at least twenty six.” She giggles at him.

 

_ Oh but little did she know.  _

 

“Of course I have darlin’,” he moves some of her hair from her face and brings it behind her ear. She looks at him, a questioning look plastered all over her face. 

 

“When I met you..” he says, his voice going softer. He scared himself a little with how soft he’s being towards her right now, but honestly, he couldn’t give a fuck anymore. 

 

Sitting there, looking at the woman who had changed his game so much, caused so many unnecessary problems, and even sent him to jail, he realized he’s never fell in love with someone as much as he did with Beth. 

 

He wants her. 

 

He feels her cupping his cheek in her hand and puts their foreheads together. He moves his free hand up to grip the side of her neck and moves his chin forward just slightly, closing his eyes. 

 

She leans forward and closes the gap. 

 

They were kissing, something’s he’s wanted to do for awhile with her. 

 

He loved everything about her. From head to toe, she was perfect for him. 

 

The kiss soon escalates, full of love and lust then into something more. It turns heated, and neither of them plan on stopping anytime soon. 

 

He wanted to stop her from falling too hard onto the ground, only to start falling with her. 

 

Only  _ when he met her,  _ did this constant feeling of plummeting begin for him. 

 

He didn’t want it to end if she was right by his side. 

 

When he met Beth, he stopped being afraid of falling. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TYSM TO EVERYONE WHO ENJOYED MY FIRST GOOD GIRLS FIC!!! I will be making more soon (I already have a small idea based on a song I’ve been listening to lately skskskdh) so get ready! ❤️

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone is interested in a Rio perspective of this, I’ll try and write one soon!  
> Ty for reading! ♡♡


End file.
